Science and engineering”s version of March Madness was in full swing Saturday, when the finals of the Sacramento-Davis Regional Robotics Competition held sway at the University of California, Davis, and Vacaville-area robotics fans walked away at the end with something to give a wholehearted, throaty cheer about.

Vanden High School”s robotics team, the RoboVikes, shared first place with two other teams, besting 53 other squads from throughout Northern California.

Led by physics teacher Doug Green, the 34-member team”s top finish during the three-day competition means that the students and some adult chaperones will be headed to the high school robotics world championship April 24-27 in St. Louis, Mo. There, they will face off against 380 teams, 10 of them from foreign countries, all of them vying for bragging rights and sizable amounts of scholarship money.

In a telephone call just before press time, an excited Green, helping to pack up equipment inside the university”s Activities and Recreation Center, where the competition was held, said judges also selected the RoboVikes as winners of the Engineering Inspiration Award, given to the team that does the most community outreach.

Additionally, NASA presented the team with a $5,000 check for its first-place win, he said.

“We worked really hard,” said Green. “Everyone”s feeling really elated. We”ve been doing (building robots and entering competitions) this for 13 years. This is our 30th regional competition and we finally won — and won two of the most prestigious awards.”

Sharing first were the Insomniacs, a team from Fremont, and the Placerville High School robotics team.

At midday, just before lunch, Vacaville High School”s team, the Robodogs, were in 47th place. Phil Jenschke, the team”s adviser, did not return a phone request for comment by press time.

The RoboVikes, who were in 17th place at midday, vaulted to the top during the final rounds, when three-team alliances were formed for the finals. Green said they and the two other teams were seeded sixth overall and kept winning until the competition ended at 4:30 p.m.

“We never lost a single match” in the afternoon, he said.

But to get there required patience, perseverance, cool heads, and luck, because, conceivably, depending on the alliance matchups, any three teams qualifying for the final rounds could win the big prize.

By 11 a.m., members of the Robodogs tinkered with monitored and adjusted their aluminum warrior, the robot Rivet, minutes before the final qualification match.

Nearby, across the way, and like the Robodogs huddled in a 10-by-10-foot space in the gym, the RoboVikes tinkered with, monitored and adjusted their aluminum warrior, the robot Beowulf.

In the hyberbusy, voice-roaring basketball arena filled with more than 2,000 people, the teams, prepared for the final qualification match before the lunch break and the afternoon matches.

With a chance to move on to the worldwide competition in St. Louis, they were in the do-or-die phase of a FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) game called Ultimate Ascent.

As Team 2085, the Robodogs languished near the bottom of a 53-team field after three qualifying matches.

On the other hand, as Team 701, the RoboVikes were comfortably in 17th place after two matches.

The reason?

“We have a good scouting system,” capable of predicting outcomes by other teams, said Tyler Olson, 17, a Vanden junior.

Like the Robodogs and teams from Fairfield and Vallejo high schools, Olson and his teammates had only recently come off a six-week “build phase,” testing the students” use of science and engineering know-how to build, program and test their bot. As they logged many hours of work before and after school — and on weekends — they also learned teamwork, leadership and group dynamics, valuable skills they will take to college or the workplace, if they choose, after graduation from high school.

Called a “varsity sport for the mind,” Ultimate Ascent, the game they prepared for in advance of the regional competition, is played by the competing alliances on a flat, 27-by-54-foot field, explained RoboVikes” Leah Green, a sophomore and daughter of Doug Green, observing a hotly contested qualification.

Per match, six bots battled to place as many Frisbee-like plastic discs into their goals (on opposite ends of the enclosed space) as they could during a 2-minute, 15-second period. The higher the goal in which the disc is scored, the more points the alliance receives, she noted.

Zach Quigley, 17, a junior on the RoboVikes, pointed out that a match begins with a 15-second “autonomous period,” in which the bots move independently of a “driver”s” computerized inputs. Discs that score are worth additional points during the period. For the rest of the match, drivers control their bots and try to earn points.

The matches ended with the bots trying to “climb” pyramids, the metal skeletal outlines of a pyramid would be more accurate, near the middle of the field. Each bot earned point based on how many rungs it climbed, Leah Green said.

Back in the assembly area, the RoboVikes” Eric Cesar, an 18-year-old senior, pointing to two small aluminum wheels on the bot, said the wheels spin at 100 mph as they shoot the disc out of the bot.

Leah Green noted that, by design and FIRST regulations, the bots have size and weight limits. They cannot weigh more than 120 pounds, she explained.

As the Vanden and Vaca high teams rolled their bots into the field area Leah Green said she and her father discuss robotics “all the time” at home.

“Robotics is, like, a lifestyle, it”s not just a hobby,” she said, adding that she handles the team”s marketing, coordination of volunteers and all-important fundraising.

At the club”s website, vandenrobotics.com, sponsors this year include the Travis Unified School District, the Solano County Office of Education, Genentech, Fairfield-Suisun Rotary and JC Penney, among many others.

At the end of the noontime qualifying match, the RoboVikes” bot was boxed in and suffered two momentary mechanical lapses, preventing it from scoring. The team slipped from 17th to 21st.

But the Robodogs gained a few places, to 45th, noted Matt Tuscher, 16, a Vaca High sophomore.

Doug Green called his team”s chances in the final rounds “pretty good. We”re down but not out.”

The younger Green said robotics increasingly will become part of the average American”s life as technological advances continue and costs come down.

She said the FIRST competition — besides entertaining, motivating and empowering students — illustrates the importance of teaching and learning of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Those disciplines, she noted, “are vital to our communities” because they are responsible for the products that make our lives easier, speed communication and allow us to earn a living in the 21st century.

In his post-competition phone call, Doug Green predicted the team will need at least $20,000 more to travel to, stay in and compete in St. Louis.

“We”ve got to go back to our parent sponsors” and other, corporate sponsors, he said. “We”ve got some work to do.”